LGBT+ Inspirational leaders 2015

In alphabetical order

You cannot vote in this category.
This category is judged based on evidence provided according to the british lgbt awards criteria.

Alison Berryman

Chief Operating Officer at Barclaycard

Ali joined Barclaycard in 2008 and is now the Chief Operating Officer for the UK consumer issuing business. Within Barclaycard, Ali has engaged in internal and external diversity and inclusion events. She is a member of Spectrum, the Barclays LGBT network and supported the Barclaycard colleague engagement for London Pride 2014. In addition, Ali is a member of the London Women’s forum, discussing key topics and networking to create a supportive framework for women in business. For Ali, inclusive leadership is about commercial relevance and social influence. She is a strong believer in creating an environment where colleagues can be authentic in the work place by setting an example. As a result, she has played a key role in Unconscious Bias training sessions deployed to Managing Director and Director populations globally. Ali understands that developing people and providing opportunities to talented individuals is at the core of effective leadership. As a result, Ali is a visible role model for colleagues, and a visible partner for straight allies within Barclaycard. She is an informal sponsor for high-potential talent across the organisation, and has continuous engagement as a mentor, helping a variety of colleagues to create positive work outcomes.

Claudia Brind-Woody

Claudia Brind-Woody is Vice President and Managing Director for IBM Global Intellectual Property Licensing and one of two co-chairs of IBM’s Global LGBT Executive Taskforce. This Taskforce has been responsible for significant initiatives at IBM, including the rollout of a Straight Ally Training and Certification program to all IBMers, the rollout of an LGBT self- identification indicator where legally possible, the sponsorship of two reverse mentoring programs and the rollout of benefit equality covering approximately 90% of IBMers worldwide. Claudia serves on various LGBT Advisory Boards and has served on various Boards of Directors throughout the world. In demand globally as a speaker, Claudia has delivered keynote speeches at Stonewall’s Leadership Forum, the OutGames in Copenhagen, Out & Equal in San Francisco, EuroPride Business Forums in Zurich, Rome and Warsaw, the Prague Pride Business Forum and multiple corporate events throughout the world and has contributed to a number of books and publications, including Out and Equal at Work: From Closet to Corner Office and Lord Browne’s The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out is Good Business.

Alison McFadyen

Head of Audit, Governance and Group Functions at Standard Chartered Bank

Alison is Head of Audit, Governance and Group Functions, Standard Chartered Bank. Before joining Standard Chartered in 1999, Alison had a wide-ranging career in the banking industry. During her time at the SC she has held several senior leadership roles. In December 2014, Alison was appointed Group Head, US Supervisory Remediation Programme and relocated to New York. She is the global LGBT Sponsor and an active member of the Standard Chartered LGBT network. Alison is heavily involved in all of the Standard Charter LGBT Network’s internal LGBT events. She participated in the first event for the Global LGBT Allies programme and has been a regular speaker at all LGBT events.
Alison and her civil partner Deborah have been together for 18 years.

João Soares

partner at Bain & Company

João Soares is a partner in Bain & Company’s London office and a leader within Bain’s Global Financial Services Practice and the leader of BGLAD, the firm’s worldwide LGBT-employee network, for Bain’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. It also acts as the LGBT undergraduate and MBA recruiting arm, in which Bain invests heavily, to identify and hire talented LGBT professionals. Founded in the late 1990s, BGLAD has helped to earn the firm a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for each of the last seven years. BGLAD creates a supportive work culture and is especially helpful to Bain’s LGBT employees who live and work in countries where being gay is less accepted or even illegal. Having worked in many of these less tolerant cultures throughout his career, João, in his BLGAD role, is an advisor to prospective and current LGBT employees. He guides them on their careers at Bain and serves as an ambassador for the firm’s welcoming and accepting environment.

Lt Cdr Sam Truelove

Royal Navy

Sam is a role model for women and LGBT employees in the Naval Service and beyond. A formidable, strong advocate of Women in Leadership, she is dynamically involved in the Naval Service Women’s Network and pursues opportunities to progress gender issues across the Naval Service and engage with the wider community. She is involved in projects to raise awareness of women and in traditionally male-dominated environments as well as LGBT personnel, working with numerous Networks, Charities, Schools and private sector to effect positive change – with her image used in the 10% Rising and Purple Reign Projects. She enthusiastically promotes and encourages women to take part, and succeed in sport (novice and competitive level), particularly triathlon.

Margot Slattery

Managing Director of Sodexo Ireland

Margot Slattery is managing director of Sodexo Ireland, which employs around 1,800 people delivering a range of services that improve the quality of life to clients at some 200 locations throughout Ireland. Appointed managing director in 2012, Margot is committed to furthering the diversity and inclusion agenda and Sodexo was a founding partner and signatory of Ireland’s first Diversity Charter. The company was also a finalist in the 2014 GALA Awards, Ireland’s LGBT Awards.

Nicholas Creswell

Vice President Performance & Talent Management at Thomson Reuters

As vice president Performance & Talent Management, Nicholas works with business and HR leaders globally across Thomson Reuters to enable excellent performance and strengthen the talent pipeline of their 55,000-person business. He has worked at Thomson Reuters since 2009: in that time he has led talent and development for the Financial & Risk business unit, and has been head of talent and development for the Technology function. Nicholas chairs the Thomson Reuters UKI Pride at Work network for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees and friends. During his tenure as chair of the network, Thomson Reuters has appeared on the Stonewall Top 100 employers for the first time, has built a significant presence at the Pride in London parade, and has run several large-scale LGBT-related events. He has also co-led a global initiative to crowd- source ideas from employees, aiming to help the company better service LGBT markets.

Steve Wardlaw

Managing Partner at Baker Botts (previous)

Steve is managing partner of the London office of the global law firm Baker Botts. LLP. He has been out at work since joining Slaughter and May in 1992, and as part of his role as an energy lawyer has worked in many challenging jurisdictions including Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Russia, where he founded the firm’s Moscow office in 2005, staying until 2012. While in Russia, he worked with a gay youth group and raised funds for a proposed Moscow Pride. He is a Stonewall Ambassador, a school governor at his village in Kent, and is a trustee of the Ecologia Youth Trust, which works on projects globally to educate and support children in a sustainable fashion. He manages the firms international diversity efforts, and the London office regularly hosts events on LGBT themes for clients and staff. In addition, he was one of the founder dancers in the start of the European same-sex competition dance circuit, winning a silver medal in Latin American ballroom dancing in Amsterdam in 1998.